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Recently, I have been exploring new areas of literature. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying classic novels; Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations and Far From the Madding Crowd. Of Mice and Men, which I studied a few years ago, is one of my favourite books.

However, something fairly new to me is poetry. I’ve been looking into poetry recently, and I’ve really been enjoying it. I’ve not often purveyed poetry before – I enjoy writing it, and do so often, but I’ve never found much in the writings of others. However, I’m looking to explore that new world, so please share with me some of your favourite poems. I’d just like to share this with you; ‘The Little House of Lost Play’, by Tolkien.

Okay, so I’ve just watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey again; it being Peter Jackson’s rendition of the book (the first part at least). I just fell to thinking about how it measures up to my preconceptions having read the book, and the LOTR Appendices.

As a film, I like it. It’s pretty good, and I love Martin Freeman as Bilbo, I think he’s a splendid character match.

Right, I can’t wait any longer, I need to rant about the things I don’t agree with!

Thorin: I like the character portrayal, he seems dark and brooding. I just don’t like the way some of the ways he pronounces his words. He has a little bit of an accent I find slightly out of character. For example, he says ‘Gandolf’ instead of ‘Gandalf’. I think it a bit odd how all of the Dwarves are from the same background, yet only Thorin has the accent. Odd.

The Trolls: Okay, I know that The Hobbit’s target audience is a bit younger than LOTR was, it’s meant to entertain children to some extent. However, I find the trolls just a little too comical. The part when the one blows his nose over Bilbo I find very displeasing to my tastes; I should have preferred it more serious. But hey, that’s just my taste and a deep respect for the literature of which it was born.

Azog: I’m sorry. There are no words for my dislike of this plotline. Azog dies in the Battle of Azanulbizar in Third Age year 2799. His son Bolg features much later in the Hobbit.

Radagast: In my mind, Radagast has always been, and will continue to be a wise man. A master of birds and beasts and in tune with the forest. Peter Jackson has painted him as some crackpot with bird droppings down his face and a birds nest under his hat. Absolutely not. I have always imagined Radagast as a tall, silver haired man of green cloak with a raven on his shoulder. I won’t let the film chap cut that from my head. For the role of the crackpot though, the actor does remarkably and I commend him.

Just a quickie for today, but I’ll have a review for the sequel to The Hunger Games over the next few days. If you’ve watched the Lord of the Rings movies, you’ve probably seen that they are indeed very good films. Quality screen-time, one might say. Now, if you haven’t treated yourself to the Extended Editions box-set, consider yourself diminished, for you have not seen the full glory of that which is the Extended Editions!

Each of the films is about four hours long. Some people might say ‘I can’t sit a movie for that long!’ Trust me; you can. These films will suck even those who’ve watched the standard movies and know all of the lines (guilty, I can sit and recite the standard films along to the television, which my family hate), and spit you out twelve hours later wanting to start all over again! There is a lot – a lot – more content, many new scenes and many revised scenes.

Please, please buy yourself the Extended Edition set. I mustadmit I’m watching it right now; I just got to one of my favourite bits of dialogue.

I just finished writing out this poem in my first shoddy attempt at ‘Bilbo Hand’, which can be found here, and is the writing style of Bilbo (and Frodo) in the Lord of the Rings films. As it is, this took me ages to write, but I hope to become more fluent!

The poem is based off of Bilbo’s poem in Rivendell, Book 1, Chapter 3. I hope you enjoy it.

Tolkien’s ‘Unfinished Tales’ is not a story in itself, but a collection of tales that relate to stories in The Lord of the Rings universe, which Tolkien has added to. Some are not ‘unfinished’, but more explanations, or even a ‘prequel’ style story. In this way, I cannot write this review as I normally would, as the book does not follow a single coherent plot, nor follow the deeds of one group of characters. Continue reading →

I’ve recently had a load of ink come through, so this week I’ll have one post a day for each colour, Sunday to Sunday. Of course, I’ll post ‘normal’ posts too, so don’t worry if the colours bore you. Feel free to comment on whether or not you like the colours, will buy them and so on. I’ve a few more inks that have only come through the post recently, but I haven’t got around to using them (they’re cartridges, and I have only one cartridge pen). Enjoy!

Lets start with Diamine Midnight, a beautiful dark blue ink. Please forgive my awful handwriting, I’m trying to improve it. You can still see the colour of the ink, even if you can’t read the words (that;s my excuse). Diamine Midnight is currently doubling as my favourite my favourite blue, and my everyday writing ink. It’s a great colour.